Reflections on Exile : And Other Literary and Cultural Essays by Edward Said (EPUB)

Description

This collection brings together Edward Said’s essays on literary and cultural topics from over three decades. As the title essay shows, Said’s own exile and the fate of the Palestinians have given form to the questions he has pursued. These essays give an insight into the formation of the critic and the development of an intellectual vocation. They cover a diverse range of topics, from the heroics of Tarzan to the machismo of Ernest Hemingway. Said offers different angles on writers and artists such as George Orwell, Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad, and Raymond Williams. Many of the central debates in the humanities over the last 30 years are addressed.

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⭐Excelent product and service

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⭐Edward Said was a Christian Palestinian who was born in Jerusalem, educated in Cairo, and became a Professor of English at Columbia University, as well as the most articulate spokesperson for the Palestinian cause. I’ve read his most famous work, “Orientalism,” as well as an easier, philosophical companion, “Covering Islam.” “Orientalism,” the word, has now becomes incorporated in the English language, and one of the definitions Webster’s now recognizes, largely due to this work, is: “a viewpoint, as held by someone in the West, in which Asia or specifically, the Arabic Middle East is seen variously as exotic, mysterious, irrational, etc.: term used to impute a patronizing attitude.” Professor Said died in 2003, and this book is a form of “summing up” of his life, and his viewpoints, and covers a wildly eclectic range of subjects and interests. Consider that an essay on the greatest and most famous singer in the Arab world in the 20th Century, Umm Kalthoum, is followed by an essay entitled “Introduction to Moby-Dick.”There are 46 essays in total, and their diversity ensures that some will induce serious eye-glazing in the reader, and for me those usual involved the ones on literary criticism. For example, there is an essay comparing Conrad and Nietzsche that only true literary specialists could appreciate, maybe all 10 of them. (Said was an expert on Conrad.) Likewise the essay entitled “Sense and Sensibility” which starts with the literary criticism of E.D. Hirsch. On the other hand, numerous essays resonated. A “Standing Civil War” is on the English fabulist T. E. Lawrence, a prime conduit for Orientalist thought, and of whom Said says: “…Lawrence becomes narrator and actor slowly being destroyed by a sense of consuming deceit.” Said has a solid essay on George Orwell, and given Said’s outlook as expressed in “Orientalism,” he savages V. S. Naipaul. Consider: “To say that Naipaul resembles a scavenger, then, is to say that he now prefers to render the ruins and derelictions of postcolonial history without tenderness… he prefers to indict the guerrillas for their pretensions rather than indict the imperialism that drove them to insurrection…” Or, “Naipaul wouldn’t make a trip to Israel, for example, which is not to say that he wouldn’t find rabbinical laws governing daily behavior any less repressive than Khomeini’s. No, his audience knows Israel is OK, “Islam” not.” There is also a solid essay on the “Grey Eminence,” Walter Lippmann. One of the most moving essays is the one which gives its title to this collection, and are the thoughts of the author about his life as an exile from his place of birth, to “have been exiled by exiles” as he puts it.For me the most fascinating essay is “The Quest for Gillo Pontecorvo,” and it is an interview with the famous Italian director whose film, “The Battle of Algiers” was proclaimed by Said as one of the two greatest political movies ever made. And simply learning how the movie was made, in Algiers, so soon after the bitter war of liberation, was illuminating, and worth the price of the book alone. Since Said is a Palestinian it was only natural that he press Pontecorvo on directing another movie, this time on the Palestinian issue. Pontecorvo declined, stating reasons that were not very convincing.The last essay in the collection is entitled “The Clash of Definitions,” which is a serious and worthwhile critique of Huntington’s “A Clash of Civilizations.” Said makes the now familiar point concerning the transformation of American Indians from “savages” to “victims” in less than a generation, but reinforces it with references to Hertog’s “The Mirror of Herodotus,” which painstakingly shows how Herodotus constructed an image of a barbarian “Other,” in his case, of the Scythians. One of Said’s central conclusions is that: “…a great deal of what used to be thought of as settled fact, or tradition, is revealed to be a fabrication for mass consumption in the here and now.”Overall, a very worthwhile collection of essays, and an enduring 5-star legacy to his memory.

⭐It is easy to get off on the wrong foot with Said if you are distracted by ideology and feel yourself threatened. What one has to do is look beyond the politics for long enough to see Said for what he is, namely, an intellectual who has devoted his life to learning. This is terribly rare these days. Sontag held the spot light for years as America’s premier intellectual. Gore Vidal still has a role to play, Edmund Wilson and Lionel Trilling both deserve mention, as do others, but in the end we are talking about a handful of people who can seriously be compared to the likes of Jean-Paul Sartre. American academics may be intellectual but they are rarely if ever intellectuals. I am not certain why, but Said, an expert on music among other things, succeeded in creating this role for himself. These essays provide a great introduction into the breadth of his thought. Like all intellectuals, he has his moments of stupidity and can be blindingly prejudiced, but then again so could Edmund Wilson and Sartre himself. What becomes apparent with intellectuals is that all of life gets submitted to intellectual scrutiny. There is none of this, “That’s not my field” stuff. Everything, including Philly steak sandwiches, gets analyzed. The erudition is impressive, but then finally it is love that stands out, not learning. Said is a lover of life, and that, ladies and gentlemen, can’t be taught.

⭐I thoroughly enjoyed this collection. As someone who loves Said’s style of prose, I savored every sentence as he expressed his thoughts on everything from Tarzan and Conrad to imperialism and the responsibility of intellectuals. Reading these essays gives one a very unique glimpse into Said’s understanding of the world – far more than reading his books I think. I don’t mean to trivialize his books, but in this collection you have a number of very personal reflections on a variety of subjects, written by a tremendously deep thinker.

⭐Delighted with it

⭐All time classic arrived on time.

⭐Its Said so its a good book. However, it is NOT for the beginner. At about the 2nd or 3rd essay I was starting to get lost. I seriously struggeled with the vocabulary at times. For that reason, the book could be critiqued as being inaccessible at times, but, with patience its informative nevertheless.

⭐Utmost comprehensive work by most widely read critic of last few decades.. the lucidity of it will not let you fancy using a book mark ever! A must on the shelves of all those voracious readers with world wide social sensibility and cultural sensitivity..

⭐A comprehensive anthology of essays by many other authors .

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